ISL champions Bengaluru FC will continue to play their home matches of the upcoming season at the Sree Kanteerava stadium in the city, the club confirmed in a statement on their Twitter handle.
“We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Karnataka, the Sports Ministry, the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports, the Karnataka Athletic Association and all other stakeholders and associations for their support in making this happen,” the statement read.
Bengaluru FC faced the possibility of playing their home matches away from the city after the club was involved in a legal tussle with a group of athletes who trained at the venue. They had filed a PIL against the use of the facility of football and allied activities that threatened to render the club without a venue with the required infrastructure in the city.
Read: BFC treated athletes at Kanteerava like criminals, says former India sprinter Ashwini Nachappa
The club had already made arrangements to shift base to Pune after enlisting the Balewadi stadium as its home ground for the upcoming season in case the issue with the Kanteerava stadium was not resolved.
The move will come as a big boost to the defending ISL champions who forged the Sree Kanteerava stadium into a fortress of sorts. In their run to the title last season, Bengaluru FC went the campaign unbeaten at home winning seven out of the ten matches played there.
Bengaluru FC will begin their 2019-20 ISL campaign against NorthEast United on October 21, in a repeat of last season’s semi-final.
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